Training for Directing

The Performance Training, Preparation and Pedagogy Research Group welcomes you to join them for an evening dedicated for theatre directing.

The seminar will open with a talk by Professor Simon Shepherd from the Central School of Speech and Drama, and sharing of work in progress of Phaedra I — by Persona Theatre Company and directed by Dr Avra Sidiropoulou, Open University of Cyprus, followed by a roundtable discussion with the creative team.

The event will conclude with a wine reception and the launch of the series The Great European Stage Directors edited by Simon Shepherd and Directions for Directing by Avra Sidiropoulou (2018).

Phaedra I — ­is a solo multimedia portrayal of a modern-day Phaedra, bearing all the ambiguities of a restless, contemporary woman who oscillates between the desires of the body and the attraction to the void, suffocating in her socially imposed roles within the ruins of a decaying metropolis. The production’s use of 3-D mapping, video projections and minimalist aesthetics yields a highly poetic visual journey through Phaedra’s stations of personal and public history. Phaedra I—is being realized with the kind support of the J.F.Costopoulos Foundation.

Simon Shepherd will ask ‘What do directors direct?’, building on his previous reflections on the specific role of the director. This, will be argued, is as distinct from the activity of directing.  In answering this question, the talk shall suggest the key things directors need to be able to do, and consequently what they have to learn.

Please book your place by email to Linda Watson, L.M.Watson@leeds.ac.uk, by Thursday the 7th of February